


Maybe monsters do deserve happiness

by AlienInvader



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-15
Updated: 2019-07-15
Packaged: 2020-06-29 05:56:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19823935
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AlienInvader/pseuds/AlienInvader
Summary: Bruce and Natasha have been getting closer. And everyone has noticed. So when he leaves after the battle of Sokovia she feels worse than expected. That is until he returns.





	Maybe monsters do deserve happiness

The flirting between Bruce and Nat had been going on for weeks now. With the exception of Clint (who was remarkably oblivious to this type of thing) and possibly Thor, everyone in Avengers tower had noticed it. In fact they had a betting pool going on how long it would take before Nat finally asked Bruce out. They knew the two well enough to know she would ask him, he was just too shy and awkward, but that she wanted him to ask her out, and that was why she was holding off on her normally fairly forthright self. That being said her hints were so obvious they were surprised that even Clint hadn’t picked up on it. (But maybe it was best he hadn’t - they didn’t need him getting all big brother over her, she could certainly take care of herself.) Tony was already out, he had bet she would finally ask him out a little over a week ago thinking Natasha would be too impatient to wait long. Coulson had guessed a couple days ago, and Steve would be out soon too if she didn’t ask him by the month’s end. Fury, as usual had refused to participate in what he labelled their “immature foolishness”, but Maria had guessed that it would be in three more weeks. They had all thought her crazy before; the flirting could seemingly not increase past where it was at, but as time ticked by it seemed more likely that she would be right. None of them were really sure if it was a good idea for the two of them to start something. They were just so drastically different, and if they fought or had a dramatic break up it could ruin the dynamic of the team, and possibly endanger civilians. However, they seemed so much more relaxed around each other than anyone else, other than Romanoff with Barton, and she was the only one that could consistently calm him down enough to transform back into his humanoid form after an incident. The two of them didn’t make sense on the outside, but watching them interact there was an undeniable connection between the them. 

Finally, upon the night of Tony’s party, with Bruce and Nat appearing to have a role play while she tended the bar, Steve in an attempt to get them to hurry up with dating, both because of the tangible sexual tension building and because he wanted to win the bet, mentioned to Bruce that he thought that the two of them would work well as a couple. By Bruce’s denial that she liked him, and his protestations that she was just flirting, it seemed as if the impossible had happened and that Bruce had truly not picked up on the vibe she had been so clearly giving him. “I’ve seen her flirt, up close. This ain’t that” he said before swaggering away, hopefully leaving Bruce to ponder on this and hoping that he had nudged him in the right direction. The call “what do you mean up close?” followed as he walked away and Steve was unable to control the smirk on his face when he remembered her on their missions, flirting with guys to either extract information or to get close enough to knock them out. Her facade of interest and desire always dropped immediately after her goal was accomplished though, and with Bruce she was so open and genuine, not even appearing to be fighting hard against the way she was programmed in the Red room. It all just seemed natural, which really wasn’t that common for her, more like inconceivable. He remembered too their kiss when evading Hydra, though that hadn’t been flirting either - that had been calculated and was for their survival. A flush filled his cheeks at that as he thought of her asking if it was his first kiss since going in the ice, he hadn’t admitted it to her, but she had been right about that.

After the guests had left, while each of the Avengers were failing in their attempts to lift Mjolnir, when it came to Bruce’s turn Natasha thought that his dorky performance of pretending to get mad was adorable, and looked down at the floor to hide her expression whilst everyone else mocked him. He, of course, socially awkward as always mistook this as a sign of second hand embarrassment or not wanting to watch him. For his part he was disappointed that she hadn’t tried to lift the hammer herself merely stating  
“That’s not a question I need answered."  
Everyone knew what she had done in the past (she had put her secret on the internet for all to see along with Shield's and Hydra's) but he had this feeling that the current version of Natalia Alianova Romanoff might be more worthy than she gave herself credit for. He could see her insecurities about herself though, and understood the fact that she wasn’t prepared for that test just yet.  
Despite the weeks of them not getting together before this the Avengers and members of Shield living in Avengers Tower were shocked that the two of them didn’t hook up that night. They had assumed that Steve’s comments (which after heated debate they had conceded, somewhat grudgingly in some cases, weren’t cheating – but definitely not to happen again) and alcohol really would’ve pushed the two of them over the edge. But Maria Hill just smiled at them knowingly and acted as if their naivety had been ridiculous.  
But the two hadn’t talked again that night, and are its end wound up in their own bed chambers, apparently aware on their friends and cohabiters intent on watching their relationship unfold.  
Really Natasha wasn’t unaware at all, she had been taught since she was very young to read the behaviours of the people around her as well as hiding her own thoughts and intentions. So she thought all their glances that shifted towards her and Bruce were rather obvious, and their smirks when the two of them interacted were practically unmissable. She let them carry on though, privately amused at what they thought was going to happen, and noticing the disappointment when each one of them was ruled out of the competition. She also knew that they would end up being correct in thinking it would be her to ask Bruce out, but didn’t want them to have the satisfaction of being right - even if she desperately wanted them to be together, and the feeling only amplified when they were alone. But she had been trained in self control, and so she waited, wanting him to have the courage and to trust her enough to be the one to ask her out, nonetheless being increasingly obvious that she wanted him.

After the Hulk had lost control when the Maximoff girl had messed with his head she knew he would be feeling like shit. He was barely willing to use the big green guy on dangerous criminals and she could tell how endangering civilians would frighten him. So she put aside her resolutions to wait for him, and decided to comfort him in whatever way she could. After her memories of the Red Room she thought that being around him might make her feel better too.

Clint really had no idea about the budding relationship between his two fellow Avengers until Laura mentioned it. She would tease him about it and with good reason too, looking back he couldn’t see how even he had missed it, it was so clear to him now. Initially he didn’t know what to think. Ever since he had saved Nat from the KGB and from Shield's hit list he had wanted to protect her, like a little sister. And it wasn’t like he was deluded enough to think her in any way inexperienced with guys that didn’t mean that the notion of her having sex didn’t disturb him though.  
But that wasn’t really his main concern. He had never known Nat to even think about being in a relationship, never mind to act on it. He knew she was tough, but she’d been through so much and he didn’t want anyone to hurt her, especially if they leveraged the private things she told them about her past to play on her worst fears and insecurities. He knew Bruce Banner wouldn’t do that to her, he was a good friend, but he was still concerned, it wasn’t like dating fell in well with her line of work. She was often away in missions for long stretches and wasn’t allowed personal contact.  
And it wasn’t just that. He knew she tended to flirt to make missions easier, and on occasion had been known to go a little further; he just wasn’t sure that Bruce would be okay with that. Even if he had always respected her role to play, he hadn’t ben an agent like the two of them and her field work might be hard to reconcile with his views.  
Even so, with the advantage of hindsight he could see how comfortable she was with him, the light heartedness that he rarely saw her project to anyone other than himself for extended periods of time shining through. The way her whole body seemed to relax around him. He was sweet too, Bruce hated to hurt people and he would take such good care of Nat.  
Yes, he thought, this could be good for her. He still might have to have a little talk with Bruce at some point though.

Meanwhile upstairs Romanov was waiting for Banner to leave the bathroom. As he exited with his towel around his hips leaving his chest exposed she drank him in. She wanted to get closer, but it wasn’t an appropriate time. As he confessed to using all the hot water she realised she had been wrong in not joining him in there, they could use a little comfort right now, and it would have felt right to finally be together.  
“We missed our window" Banner seemed to think that the timing was wrong too, but when was it ever going to be right. For the two of them especially there was always some new crisis to deal with  
“Did we?”  
As their talk turned to the Hulk and he told her that he had to leave she knew he wouldn’t back down. He hated how people looked at him knowing that he could turn into a huge green rage monster, and knew how much worse it would be for him now that the world had seen what he called “the real Hulk", so instead she suggested that she could go with him. It was a big commitment to make but she always felt so comfortable around him. Besides what she had been shown confirmed to her that she had never really been an Avenger, she wasn’t a good person, maybe if she ran and hid she wouldn’t harm any more people. Maybe.

When he shut the screen down on the quinjet it hurt. It physically hurt. More than anything she’d ever been hurt by when she fought, including that time when the winter soldier had shot her. The look on his face had been one of despair and heartbreak and it had made her give up hope that he would return. It made her mad. The first think she did when she got back after the first training session with the new recruits was to lock herself in her room and smash shit up. She realised that the others in the tower would hear her but while she wouldn’t let the mask slip off in front of people right then she couldn’t bring herself to care if they heard her tantrum. If love was for children she figured this was an appropriate reaction.  
After the gradual destruction if every breakable possession in her living quarters she asked JARVIS to order her some new furniture and headed down to the gym to beat the shit out of a punching bag and burn off some energy, deciding that she may as well do something productive with her rage.  
As night fell she went to the bar and used her infamous glare to scare away anyone else hoping to get a drink before getting some vodka from the fridge and downing almost two bottles. Still not really getting drunk (she had a rather high tolerance for alcohol after years of drinking practice).  
Figuring she might as well give up on getting smashed she went back to the wreckage of her room to cry, silently though – she would let people hear her rage but never hear her tears. She would never let anyone know how much this had hurt her, she couldn’t afford to show weakness and didn’t want anyone else invading her business. And it true all the more because inside she knew that him leaving was partly her fault.  
Eventually she fell asleep and when she woke up followed her regular routine exactly so no one would suspect anything was wrong, but though her expressions were carefully schooled to give nothing away, behind the eyes she looked dead, even if she wouldn’t let anyone else see it.

In his own temporary room Clint Barton was almost as pissed at Banner as Natasha was. She never opened herself up like that – even with him it had taken years of building trust and teamwork. But she’d let him in and then he'd just left as if that was o big deal. If he was here (and not the Hulk he would have been likely to do him some serious physical damage then.

It was two days later when JARVIS announced the arrival of Bruce Banner at the tower. Natasha almost didn’t believe it, she thought him gone for good after she’d forced him to become the Hulk so part of himself which he clearly hated. But he hadn’t abandoned her even if maybe she had deserved it. Had come home. Back to her.  
Bruce’s arrival was immediately met with Tony bouncing down the stairs chattering at 10 miles an hour about some new tech he had cooking and Bruce couldn’t help but grin, it was the first time had felt accepted anywhere. And it felt really good.  
“Hey Tony I'd love to talk to you about his but I really need to see Nat.” For once Tony wasn't his normal obtuse self and nodded understandingly, telling him her whereabouts before getting JARVIS to ensure his room was ready.  
Bruce only realised he didn’t know what to say after he'd knocked on Nat’s door, but he was saved the embarrassment by her enveloping him in a hug and kissing him. It wasn’t with the passion had expected. It was better. Her movements were slow and sweet and the simple action conveyed her feelings in a way her face never had. When they disentangled he was still unable to formulate words in the way he wanted but yet again she saved him.  
“I’m so sorry Bruce. I know it wasn’t fair of me to force on like that, but I need you to believe that I meant what I said. I do adore you.” Her tone was soft and her eyes pleading for forgiveness, she looked so vulnerable and nervous and if he had had doubts before they vanished in an instant looking at her like this. But then her usual hardness returned and her eyes became piercing.  
“But I need you to know too that I would make the exact same choice again if I had too. Even if it meant that I would never see you again or if you hated me for it.”  
And there it was. Her betrayal should have hit him again. It should have hurt more, but for a reason he couldn’t quite fathom it didn’t. And then it hit him. She had chosen to save the world over her own happiness. Had seen the good in him where he hadn’t and trusted him. She had made the call that she was always going to make, the hard call. One or two would sacrifice something for the safety of everyone else, and her ability to see so clearly with such unaffected judgement was why he loved her too.  
Welp. Love. That was a big word. And he sure as hell wouldn't want to say it yet and scare her away, but he knew that it was what he felt.  
“Bruce?” She was shy, scared, her earlier tone returning and he rral8sed that he’d be silent for too long and she would be dreading his reply after what she’d said.  
“Nat I adore you too." The smile on her face was the most genuine he’d ever seen and his insides lit up at the fact that he’d been the one to induce it. And at the thought that he liked her too. “and I forgive you.” If possible her smile grew even wider then and he was struck by how beautiful she was as Nat and not the infamous Black Widow. He couldn’t resit gathering her up in his arms and kissing her.  
Natasha was so relieved to hear him say that, it meant that she hadn’t torn this relationship to the ground. She would finally be able to be happy and have something like Clint and Laura had. He was amazing, even after all she had done he was willing to forgive her and move on.  
Bruce started to feel that maybe they’d make it through this okay. Not just him and Nat but all of them. These people trusted him I both forms, and the other guy didn’t want to hurt them either. He didn’t feel compelled anymore, he could stay. Bond with the Avengers. Talk science with Tony. And be with the woman he loved. And for the first time in a long time his life didn’t feel so cursed anymore.

The following day the two of them came down for breakfast together. She was wearing one of his shirts and they both looked a little unkempt but more noticeable was their happiness.  
No one was in the kitchen when they entered they were briefly spared the teasing nests and comments. She sat in the counter lefts swinging back and forth almost as if she were a little girl again as he made pancakes for the two of them. When he was done they sat at the table together; her curled into his side and him with an arm around her shoulder.  
They sat contentedly like that drinking coffee and eating pancakes and not once thinking about moving. Neither of them even stirred when they heard the rest of the Avengers troop in for their breakfast.  
“So someone finally made a move then." They all smirked at the pair. Natasha and Bruce just turned and grinned. It was nobody else’s business what had happened after all.  
“Don’t you all Maria some money or something?” Natasha murmured casually into her coffee cup. That sobered them all up a little (except Maria whose smugness only grew as she held her palm outstretched for all the others to put their money into).  
“You knew?” Steve’s jaw was practically on the floor and all of the others were starting to realise what her statement showed. They began shifting uncomfortably and looking around as it of scared of a trap or sneak attack.  
“You weren’t exactly subtle. And I’m not stupid but it did provide me with some nice entertainment, and it meant that I could lose some of you your money without even trying.”  
“You bitch. I knew you were holding back for some reason. You would have asked him out weeks ago if you’d hadn’t known that would have made me win.”  
“Serves you right Stark.” She added a wink. “Now if you’re all done gawking me and my boyfriend are going to go have sex now.” Bruce reddened as she dragged him out of the kitchen leaving all the others spluttering and/or laughing in their wake. Discussing their sex lives like that was a little awkward for him but this was Natasha and sex was one thing she certainly wasn't secretive about.  
Boyfriend though, that sure did sound nice coming from her. He was hers. And she was his. And he wasn’t going to let anything change that anytime soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I know not everyone ships brutasha but they seemed so cute together they I wrote something where they get the happiness thay they deserve as a couple.


End file.
